4 ms·

I'm always amazed by these islands of stability: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability#/media/File%3AIsland_of_Stability_derived_from_Zagrebaev.s

• phkahler 2y ago
  I'm fascinated by the island of instability at 5. There are no stable elements with 5 baryons.
  • perihelions 2y ago
    That one has cosmic significance (so I understand); that island is what choked off big bang nucleosynthesis from continuing beyond helium. The universe would be unrecognizable if there were a stable He-5 or Li-5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_nucleosynthesis#Heavy_elements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_nucleosynthesis#Heavy... ("Big Bang nucleosynthesis produced very few nuclei of elements heavier than lithium due to a bottleneck: the absence of a stable nucleus with 8 or 5 nucleons...")